Several online petitions have described the NDMC’s decision to rename Aurangzeb Road as incorrect and unfortunate.

These petitions have compared the move to the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992.

One petitioner is Yousuf Saeed, who has reportedly written letters to Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, and Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, explaining how this decision will be viewed by public at large.

“To many of us, this renaming is symbolically as incorrect and unfortunate as the 1992 demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, since that was also done on ‘public demand’ and to ‘correct the wrongs of history’,” he was quoted by Indian Express as saying.

Saeed, who’s also an independent film-maker and researcher in Delhi is not alone complaining about this move.

“Do we want our future generations to remember that the name of one ‘bad’ Muslim was replaced by a ‘good’ Muslim? Is that the kind of history we want to propagate in this country,” reads the petition, appealing that a new road or institution be named after Dr Kalam and the name of Aurangzeb Road be left unchanged.”

In another petition, In another petition, Citizens For Democracy too has described the decision as “totally wrong” stating that “the decision taken by the NDMC is totally illegal, arbitrary, malafide, unjustified and void…”

NDMC on Friday had announced it was changing the name of Aurangzeb Road to APJ Abdul Kalam Road. Kejriwal was among the first few to congratulate the municipal body for its decision.